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Homily for the Thirteenth Sunday in
Ordinary Time
(July 2, 2006)
Image: When you go to donate blood, they need to ask you
all kinds of questions to make sure that the blood you give will be safe.
They ask you all kinds of questions about your contacts with other people
– If you have been too long in the wrong country; been around people with
certain illnesses; or had relations with the wrong person, your blood will be
rejected; you will be considered an unfit donor. This reminds me of the
predicament of the woman with a hemorrhage. By Jewish law at that time because
of her flow of blood she would have been categorized as unclean and anyone she
touched would have considered unclean. But, in her desperation she reaches out
to touch Jesus. Not only does
Jesus not become unclean, the woman is healed and made clean.
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I) However this is not magic.
Jesus makes it very clear to her: “Daughter, your faith has saved
you.”
A. When Jesus comes to the
daughter of Jairus, he does speak some magic words or use a magic potion.
It is the faith of her father which opens the door to her being raised
from the dead.
B.
I certainly very happy that our Catholic Church is comfortable with
statues, medals and pictures of Christ and the saints. But I get very
nervous when some people begin to treat them in a magical way
– as if the medal itself would protect them or a statue of
St. Joseph
buried upside down in the back yard would make a house sell.
That’s not Catholic. That is superstition. |
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C.
Jesus wanted to make it clear to the woman with the
hemorrhage, she was not healed just because she touched the tassel on his
garment, but rather she had been healed by her trust; her faith in Jesus
Christ.
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II) What does
it mean for us to have faith in Jesus Christ?
A)
We believe that in Jesus Christ, God’s mercy is poured out
upon all those who have the ability to receive it. The only container in
which we can hold God’s mercy is our faith. Because the woman had
enough faith to reach out to Jesus, she was not only healed in body, even
better she was given a share in eternal life as a daughter of God.
B)
After his son was killed by a careless truck driver, Pastor
Smith found it hard to pray. Life seemed very empty and it was hard
for him to go on. One night when he was down on his knees crying out:
“God, why, why did you let me son die?” it really hit him that God had
sent his own son to die for us. He
said that at that moment it finally sank in how much God loves us. He
still missed his son, but he no longer doubted that God loved him.
C) Father
Emeric Lawrence admitted: “ I am afraid that for years, Jesus was more a
figure from the past, real but I did not experience Jesus present the way
my friends are. After using for some time the Jesus prayer, where
you keep repeating over and over – as you breath in and out—
Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior, have mercy on me, he testified
that his relationship with Jesus was growing, but it is a gradual process
with which he is still not satisfied.
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Conclusion: Whether your faith in Jesus comes in a blinding
flash, or is still a work in process
Our faith in Jesus Christ is the basis of our whole relationship with God.
I not only believe that Jesus Christ
is a healer and a miracle worker,
* I believe that Jesus came from heaven, and is truly the Son of God.
* I not only believe that Jesus raised Jairus’s daughter from the dead, I
believe that Jesus himself rose from the dead and has made it possible for me to
be with God in heaven forever.
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